Union officials question proposed Trademark Office layoffs

Union officials plan to use legislative, regulatory and legal methods to fight a proposed layoff of up to135 trademark examining attorneys by Sept. 30 at the Patent and Trademark Office.

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley met with about 250 trademark attorneys on Monday, outlining the organization's plan to stave off proposed layoffs announced May 30 by Trademarks Commissioner Anne Chasser. PTO officials said reductions in trademark application filings require them to cut as much as one-third of the staff of examining attorneys beginning next month. The agency currently employs 383 examining attorneys.

"We think the reduction-in-force is without basis, it's risky and completely unnecessary," said PTO attorney-advisor Howard Friedman, president of NTEU Local 245, which represents the attorneys.

During Monday's meeting, Kelley promised to ask PTO to negotiate issues surrounding the proposed reduction-in-force, and said the union plans to make formal requests for detailed information to help analyze the impact of the agency's proposal. In addition, NTEU will seek assistance from Congress.

"NTEU will be looking for PTO to make a convincing business case for its proposed reduction-in-force of up to 135 trademark examining attorneys," Kelley said. "PTO is under no budgetary pressure to reduce staff, there are adequate funds in this year's budget, and the administration's budget proposal for the next fiscal year does not even have the PTO spending all of the fees it collects."

According to PTO officials, trademark applications peaked at 375,000, but last year that number dropped 21 percent to 296,000-the largest single-year decrease ever. Applications are expected to fall again this year to 250,000. That decline coupled with future projections means there isn't enough work to support the existing staff, according to PTO. Friedman, who has worked with the agency for more than eight years, disputes those numbers.

"Filings were down last year, but they picked up in the first quarter of this fiscal year, and the second quarter was even higher," he said. "People are straining to get to new cases, people are drowning in cases, so for the office to take a position like that is just contrary to what's going on, and frankly, they have been very quiet when it comes to providing any data that shows that this reduction-in-force is necessary."

Customer service will decline if the workforce is scaled back, Kelley said, and more thought needs to be given to customer needs, including how a reduction-in-force will affect turnaround time, quality and implementation of the agency's new e-commerce initiative.

"Instead of looking to eliminate experienced and dedicated employees, PTO should be putting these employees to good use in clearing out the backlog of pending trademark applications, improving the quality of services provided, and advancing e-commerce efforts at the agency," Kelley said.

Former PTO Director Todd Dickinson said that agency officials seemed to be predicting that the economy and trademark filings would be depressed for a while. "Trademark applications are often a function of the economy: if the economy turns up, applications are up," he said.

"I think it's the first time that there have ever been layoffs at the trademark office. It's sad that it has to be done, but I understand it," Dickinson said about the proposed layoffs. "I think it's important that everybody-the PTO and the private sector-work together to minimize the impact of this."